Chronology of the Armenian Genocide -- 1917

Click on the names of highlighted cities, towns, and other locations to view a map of the genocide.

January 4

Mr. Goppert of the German Embassy, visits Enver, Talaat and Foreign Minister Halil to convey that forcible Islamization had no connection with military necessity or the security of the state and must be stopped immediately.

February 4

Talaat becomes the Grand Vizier of Turkey.

February 14

Halide Hanum, the Turkish female author, and head of an orphanage established in Syria, receives 70 Armenian orphans in her orphanage in order to Turkify them.

February 15

Another group of 70 Armenian orphans are sent to an orphanage in Lebanon to be Turkified.

March 5

The government distributes by rail to various villages and towns 400 Armenian orphans from Aleppo.

March 5

350 Armenian orphans from an Armenian orphanage in Syria are given to surviving relatives, no matter how distantly related, in order to keep them from falling into the hands of the Turks.

March 11

Allied forces occupy Baghdad.

March 15

20,000 Armenians in the city of Aleppo are reported in extreme distress.

March 15

The Turkish government declines American offers of aid to the Armenian survivors.

March 20

In Aleppo District, 45,000 Armenian deportees are reported living in dire conditions. Of these, 10,000 were women, while the rest were mainly orphaned children.

March 23

The governor-general of Damascus, Huseyin Kiazim, reports that there are 60,000 Armenian deportees in Damascus District, of which only 10% were capable of doing any kind of work.

March 23

10,000 Armenian deportees are reported in the city of Damascus, and 30,000 Armenian deportees are reported in Homs and Hama.

March 26

Ernst E. Cristoffel, a German missionary in Malatia, who witnessed the massacres and deportations, estimates that 1,000,000 Armenians had been murdered.